


Creature Comfort

by chiaroscure



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: Bisexuality, BotaniGal-Pals, F/F, Kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:07:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23828068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chiaroscure/pseuds/chiaroscure
Summary: Upset in the aftermath of her breakup with Jimmy, Ivy seeks comfort from Daisy. The result is, in Daisy's opinion, surprisingly nice.
Relationships: Daisy Mason/Ivy Stuart
Comments: 6
Kudos: 32





	Creature Comfort

**Author's Note:**

> And they were _roommates_

It had been a long day. After dinner, everyone had shuffled away to their beds without much fanfare. Daisy had taken it upon herself to finish the final touches of cleaning in the servants’ hall, herself feeling more alert than Mrs Patmore and the others looked — though that was not saying much. It was not often she was the last one here; she had always to get up so early in the morning, and, unlike _some_ people, she wasn’t out to the pictures at all hours every other night.

She reminded herself with some satisfaction that that likely wouldn’t be the case for Ivy anymore either, now things had gone sour between her and Jimmy. The thought put a spiteful spring in Daisy’s step despite her fatigue.

Funny how nobody ever got along with the person they roomed with, she mused on her way down the hall where kitchen staff slept, the late hour very much catching up with her. Was that just bad luck, or was there something about having to sleep in the same space that would necessarily put two people at odds with each other? She yawned into her shoulder, forgetting her question as quickly as she’d thought of it.

She expected to find Ivy sound asleep, so the presence of an illuminated candle surprised her. More surprising was the sight of Ivy sitting, still dressed, on the edge of her bed with her hands clasped, staring off into nothingness. Daisy stopped short to take in the unusual tableau.

“Why didn’t you stay to help tidy up if you were going to be awake all this time?” Daisy asked, though her voice didn’t come out as petulant as she’d meant for it to.

Ivy looked up at her with a weak apologetic smile. “Sorry. I thought I’d go to bed when I turned in, but I must have forgot to do it.”

Daisy closed the door warily behind her and went to her dresser to remove her apron and bonnet. Ivy did not make a sound; even without looking, it was clear she was not moving. Daisy continued to undress, trying not to pay the other girl any mind. Once finished with her nighttime ablutions, she turned to find Ivy, predictably, still staring off into thin air.

“Are you going to sleep sitting up in your clothes, then?” Daisy asked, beginning to feel unnerved and annoyed in equal measures by Ivy’s strange behavior. Ivy shrugged, but just as Daisy was about to give up and blow out the candle, she listlessly stood to at least remove her dress and shoes before getting back in bed and sparing Daisy the trouble of putting out the candle herself.

Daisy settled back onto her pillow, still feeling uneasy but trying to put the strangeness out of her mind. This was far from the first time Ivy had done something that she couldn’t understand, even if she had never done this specific thing before. She was just closing her eyes when Ivy’s soft voice interrupted the quiet of the dark room.

“Do you think Mrs Hughes was right, that I had it coming?”

Daisy blinked. “What?”

“That I were flirting too much with Jimmy,” Ivy clarified. “I didn’t mean for him to think I’m that kind of girl, I just liked him an awful lot. Maybe I did get carried away.”

Daisy imagined saying a number of less than sympathetic things to that, about rouge and kissing in the boot room and having too many drinks in the village, but Ivy sighed before she got a chance to respond.

“It weren’t actually so bad, what he did, I guess,” Ivy said, “it’s just insulting is all. I thought he really did like me, but now it seems like everybody but me knew he weren’t serious, and you all think I should have known better. I feel so stupid now.”

Daisy frowned up at the dark ceiling. She had never felt any special fondness for Ivy, and her lack of concern for propriety (or Alfred’s feelings) rubbed her the wrong way, but she didn’t like Jimmy any better than she did Ivy. It was true that Daisy had long felt Ivy should have known better if she didn’t want something like this to happen, but she’d also never truly _talked_ to Ivy about Ivy’s feelings regarding the unpleasant misalignment of affections among the four of them, so she had never given the other girl’s wishes that much thought.

“I don’t know why you carried on with him at all,” Daisy said, opting for the time being to stick to neutrality. “He never seemed worth much bother to me.”

“I thought he were handsome and exciting, talking about travel and all that,” Ivy replied, her blankets rustling audibly across the small room. “And he _is_ handsome and exciting, but I…I must’ve taken that to mean he’d be gentlemanly too, no matter how I behaved, and…well, now everybody just thinks I’m some silly tart, includin’ him.”

Daisy wished she were better at this sort of thing. Ivy didn’t actually sound all that sad in her voice, but her words did. How was a person supposed to respond to that?

“I wish I’d listened to you, now,” Ivy laughs. “You told me, didn’t you, that Alfred’s sweeter. I should’ve minded what you said, but I thought you were just jealous. I think I’ve shot my luck now though; I’m not sure anybody much likes me anymore.”

“Well, Alfred still does,” she muttered, not sure whether she meant it bitterly or kindly.

No response to that came from Ivy. Just a pause, then, “I wish you and I could’ve been friends, Daisy.”

 _That’s my fault_ , Daisy knew, with a twinge of guilt. She’d been Ivy’s superior; she should’ve acted like it, rather than being petty.

“We are, sort of,” Daisy tried. “It were nice walking at the fair with you, in Thirsk.”

It sounded weak; that was a full year ago, and that nothing more recent came to mind belied the falsehood of any claims to real friendship. It must have sounded like a poor excuse to Ivy too, because Daisy just heard her let out a thin breath. Then there was a long pause, enough that Daisy wondered if perhaps Ivy had fallen asleep.

“Can I come and sit with you?” Ivy whispered, too quiet to be startling. “Just for a minute.”

Daisy thought about that for a long moment; nobody had been in her bed since started at Downton Abbey. She valued what space of her own she could get, just like all of them did. Still….

“Fine,” she gave in eventually. “Yeah, come on, then.”

She pushed herself up and over so she had her back to the wall, feet tucked under her, facing into the room as Ivy padded the two steps to her bed. Daisy wasn’t sure what she was expecting Ivy to do, but Ivy did not share her uncertainty as she nestled into Daisy’s side, her spine against the wall as well, her temple rested on Daisy’s shoulder. Daisy stiffened at the sudden intrusion on her space, but if Ivy noticed she didn’t care, snaking a hand around Daisy’s arm and leaning her knees so her right thigh was flush with Daisy’s left. Her soft breathing came warm and even on the bare skin of Daisy’s upper arm.

 _Her hair is soft_ , Daisy mused, once she’d acclimated to the familiarity and let her head tip sideways against Ivy’s.

This was alright, she decided, as Ivy shuffled a bit closer still, twining their fingers together. Maybe it was just because she was so tired by now, but this was nice. Comfortable. They might as well be friends. At least Ivy wouldn’t be out with Jimmy making Alfred miserable anymore.

Ivy gave a sweet little sigh, and Daisy forgot what she had just been thinking.

“At my last place I had lots of friends,” Ivy murmured after a few minutes. “Girls, other maids, you know. We used to braid each other’s hair and walk about arm in arm and such. It were nice; people aren’t like that here. I’d never stepped out with a boy before either, not really — there was one who — but that didn’t count. I got here and I were just curious…it’s nice to feel special to someone. Even if you’re really not.”

“I can braid hair,” Daisy mumbled, feeling warm.

Ivy squeezed her arm against her body, both of her hands around the one of Daisy’s. It was lovely, Daisy thought. Lovely and soothing and safe. With her head spinning a bit, she let her eyes drift shut.

“Have you ever had anybody who were special to you?”

There was an obvious answer to that, but Ivy already knew that one, and it didn’t seem like the thing to say just now. Another young man — the wrong young man — came to mind too, but that was nothing either.

“I had a husband, but he died,” she said instead, eyes still closed.

“Oh. I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright.”

It really was alright; would be, even if most of her attention weren’t on the feeling of Ivy’s chest rising and falling with her breath against her. Ivy seemed to believe her, content to remain relaxed beside her in silence.

“Would you braid my hair some time?” Ivy asked.

Daisy nodded, near-hypnotized, as Ivy pulled one of her arms free to trail her fingertips loosely against Daisy’s scalp, sending pleasant shivers down her back. Her head shifted on Daisy’s shoulder, so Daisy moved to look at her, to see what was happening. Ivy’s features were muted by the darkness of the room, but her eyes caught what little light there was as their breath mingled between their faces so close together. Ivy’s hand rested at the nape of her neck, which was a very nice feeling. Daisy’s lips parted; perhaps she was about to say something, but she didn’t know what it was, which was just as well because Ivy leaned forward and closed what little gap there was left between them. Her lips were warm, and soft, and they moved gently against Daisy’s before she pulled away. That wouldn’t do, Daisy hazily decided, and closed the space between them again, bringing her own hand up behind Ivy’s ear to hold her lightly in place. Her hair was soft against her fingers too, she found.

Their necks had to twist in their current angle, so, with some small adjustments of their knees, their hips, and their backs, they moved toward a more comfortable arrangement. Ivy’s knee rested atop Daisy’s thigh, her fingers poised on her shoulder blade, creating a little circle of warmth through Daisy’s nightdress. Ivy’s breathing was all the more apparent with Daisy’s hand nestled into the crook of her waist, her chest pressed to hers so their every inhale pushed them even closer together. Soft strands of Ivy’s hair trailed along Daisy’s cheek as she adjusted her head, her warm lips sweet and gentle and chaste on hers, not still but almost.

 _This is kissing_ , Daisy acknowledged dreamily in her head. It was more kissing than she’d ever done, though it did not feel the way she might have expected such an act to feel. Kissing Ivy had never occurred to her before, certainly never _appealed_ to her, and she did not feel for her even now as she had for boys she’d only ever imagined touching like this. Her heart did not pound nervously in her breast; she felt no shaking want for more. Nonetheless, her nerves were sensitized to every touch, and there was a tenderness for Ivy blooming in her that made her feel wonderfully sure that this was a good thing to be doing. Perhaps this was some other sort of kissing, some other sort of intimacy that was more heightened embrace than impassioned declaration. Ivy sighed against her mouth, and she stopped her thinking.

Daisy floated through the companionable, warm sensuality for an unknown time (her skin was not a good timekeeper, she found) until they both pulled back simultaneously, foreheads pressing together as they drew separate but mingled breathes from the air in the narrow space between them. Daisy’s lips felt swollen and slick as she could not remember them ever feeling before; she wondered fleetingly what Ivy’s might look like now, if she were to look at them. But she did not; she did not need to see now; would not be able to anyway, so dark was it in the little room they shared. Instead, she traced a single fingertip over the soft, plump skin of Ivy’s cheek, and marveled at its loveliness.

“I liked that,” Ivy whispered, with sleep and awe thick in her voice. “I didn’t know it could be like that.”

Their hands clasped together again, this time pulled up under their chins. Daisy could drift off like this, if they stayed sitting this way, propped against and leaning forward into Ivy. It would be perfectly comfortable; she wouldn’t mind sharing her bed this once, if they stayed like this.

“We should sleep,” Ivy murmured, though, and carefully pulled away. That was fine; Daisy did not miss the loss of her, really; she was happy to sleep as normal tonight. She blinked up at Ivy as she stood, hardly more than a silhouette in the darkness, bringing Daisy’s hand, still locked with hers, with her as she went. That, too, she finally let go of, their fingers slipping past each other to return to their respective sides. For a moment Ivy stood immobile, like she might say or do something else, but she didn’t, and that was fine too.

Daisy lay back against her pillow when she heard Ivy sink into her own bed across the room. She pulled her blankets up around her, turning onto her side to face into the room, rather than towards the wall as she usually did. It was too dark to see, really, but she imagined she saw Ivy smile at her one last time before she closed her eyes and, finally, fell asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Oh my god they were roommates
> 
> I’ve taken some liberties here with kitchen staff rooms based on what I know of many manor houses’ layouts, with housemaids and similar sleeping in separate quarters from kitchen maids, who usually would sleep near or in the kitchen itself, often several girls to a room. As far as I can recall, we never see or hear about where Daisy sleeps, so it didn’t seem like a stretch to put the botaniGal Pals in a room together ;) 
> 
> Find me on tumblr at sinaesthete.tumblr.com


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